


The Universe Has A Way

by CloudXMK



Category: Death Stranding (Video Games)
Genre: Adopted!Higgs Monaghan, Adopted!Louise, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Angst and Feels, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Brief Appearances of Lisa Bridges, Domestic Fluff, Drama, Family Drama, Family Fluff, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Kid!Higgs Monaghan, Kid!Sam Porter Bridges, M/M, Mentions of Lisa Bridges, Red String of Fate, Romance, Romantic Fluff, Soulmates, Time Skips, more characters may show up
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-02
Updated: 2020-01-11
Packaged: 2021-02-24 15:48:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,706
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21640435
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CloudXMK/pseuds/CloudXMK
Summary: When one's soulmate passes on before their time, the Universe has a way to ensure that the broken bond will be repaired.When tragedy hits, John and Cliff would learn that for the first time.
Relationships: Die-Hardman/Clifford Unger
Kudos: 39





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! So this idea for another John/Cliff fic has been in my head for quite some time. I'm not sure how many chapters this will be but I hope you guys will enjoy it!

They say that when one’s soulmate dies before their time, the Universe will go about to ensure to correct it. That the Universe is fair and will replace that lost soulmate with another. For humans can never live alone. To live alone was to wither and die, a first death before they were laid to rest and their souls would join the stars above.

And so when Cliff lost his wife, the Universe got to work.

John remembered when he had met the man whom would become his Captain. At first, he had been concerned that the man would be a jerk and just a terrible leader like a few of the squad leaders he had been under.

To his astonishment, the Captain was a respectful, kind and yet stern man. He made him feel as if he was part of a larger family, and that bond would continuously grow whenever they would go into another death-defying mission after mission surviving by the inch of their skin. They were all comrades and then suddenly one day, John started to fall for him. Hard.

He hadn’t dare say anything, fearing that it would ruin his relationship with the Captain and he didn’t even know if the Captain ever held feelings for a man. John had relationships with women and men before but as for his Captain’s love life, he had no clue and he didn’t dare risk it.

But even though he kept his feelings for the Captain to himself even after the war was finally over, his relationship with Cliff started to fall apart. They didn’t fall out on terrible terms no. It was just Cliff met the love of his life and slowly but steadily they stopped hanging out especially when Lisa got pregnant.

It did hurt but he did not mind. In fact, he was happy that his Captain and wife were happy and ready to start a family. It was unfortunate that they did fall out of touch. The last he heard of them was that Lisa was already 14 weeks along.

Only for fate to bring them back together again but in the worst circumstances possible. During the time he had lost contact with Cliff, he had been hired to be a bodyguard for the CEO of Bridges, an up and coming biotech company. Cliff however would be going through the worst days of his life.

John never expected to meet Cliff and especially in the ICU unit of a Bridges hospital. Worst, he never expected to see Lisa brain dead on the bed hooked up to all sorts of tech courtesy of Bridges keeping her alive. “Captain…”

Cliff, whom was sitting by his wife’s bed, looked up and nearly did a double take when he saw the former soldier. “John?”

“I-I came as soon as I heard. I didn’t know.” John said, walking around the bed. Sorrow filled his heart when he turned to look at Lisa then back at the grieving older man. “I’m so sorry.” John murmurs, placing a hand on Cliff’s shoulder and squeezed letting the man know he wasn’t alone anymore.

“They say she’s never going to wake up. And my son… so far he’s fine.”

Cliff then got up and without a word, pulls the man into a firm hug. “I can’t… I can’t lose my son too, John. Lisa… I’m hoping she can still make it but I don’t know anymore… I can’t lose him too.” He chokes out, gripping onto the younger man as if he were his anchor in this terrible storm that he was trapped in.

“Bridges are doing their best. He’ll be fine.” John says, trying to reassure the man. He prayed so too. God, what had his Captain done to deserve this?

Cliff couldn’t speak, his composure breaking down as he wept, grief engulfing him as he remembered his dear wife whom laid on the bed brain dead but only kept alive by these machines and his son in the neonatal ICU kept alive inside the incubator. As much as he hoped that his wife would recover, he knew deep down there was nothing he could do to save his wife. He only prayed his son would pull through.

28 weeks. He was too early and too young to be out in this world right now. But it had been a matter of life and death. The doctor and the medical staff had to perform an emergency C-section lest Sam dies with his mother. When the doctor had let him in and he saw his son for the first time, he cried seeing how vulnerable his baby son was. He swore then that he would be there for him and for his mother no matter how long it took and how hopeless it seemed to be. He wouldn’t give up on any of them.

Still, the stress from today and the grief and anguish filling him was just too much even for the hardened Captain. 

“He’ll pull through.” John murmurs, tightening his arms around the Captain.

* * *

When John came to visit the Captain again a few days later, he learned from the receptionist that the man was in the neonatal ICU and his heart went to his throat. Dread filled his chest and when he ran into the neonatal ICU, his worst nightmares were confirmed.

Cliff was in a state. He was sobbing uncontrollably leaning over the incubator in which his son was kept in and when he saw the younger man, he had nearly bowled into John and buried his face into the man’s shoulder shaking from head to toe.

“What happened, Captain? What’s going on?” John asks, bracing himself for the answer yet dreading it at the same time. 

“S-Sam… the doctor told me that his condition has deteriorated, John. H-He may not make it through the night.” The older man sobbed.

John couldn’t bear to see his Captain so broken and just engulfed in great anguish and sorrow. It wasn’t fair for his Captain. He’s a good man, an upstanding Captain, a loving husband and a great father seeing from how he was doing his best to take care of both his wife and his prematurely born son whom was now dying.

Looking over Cliff’s shoulder, John just wanted to cry seeing how many tubes were running in and out of the small baby inside the incubator. It was just heartbreaking even for him and he wasn’t even a father.

Still, if this child has a part of the Captain, he had an inkling that Sam wouldn’t be giving up without a fight just like his father never gave up on saving him and his squad whenever they were caught in a pickle in the many missions they had gone through.

“Don’t give up yet, Captain. If Sam is anything just like you, then he isn’t one to give up without a fight.”

John pulls back then, holding the Captain by his shoulders. “Don’t give up now, Captain. I know you. You’re not one to give up not in battle and not now. I’ll stay here by your side to help you keep an eye on Sam and support you throughout this ordeal.” He says. John wasn't planning on leaving and abandoning the Captain. Cliff had always saved him. Now it was his turn to return that debt. 

“I… I appreciate it, John. You have been a great friend. I… couldn’t ask for a better friend from you.” Cliff murmurs, wiping away the tears from his eyes.

“Come on. Let’s go and take a seat by the incubator. We can keep an eye on Sam then.” John suggests, gently steering the man towards the chair by the incubator. Getting another chair, John drags it over and takes a seat then right beside Cliff.

Placing a hand over the Captain’s shoulder as a means of supporting the older man, both Cliff and John kept watch the entire night over little Sam, their hearts racing and worrying for the boy’s life but still holding a glimmer of hope that he could pull through.

And he did pull through miraculously.

As for Lisa… unfortunately miracles can only last for so long.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologize for the late upload. Been busy (AND JUST THE FIRST WEEK LMAO) and also recovering from my illness (I should be fully recovered by this Sunday). But again, thank you for being patient and supporting this fic. Here's the newest chapter and I hope that you guys will enjoy it!

Staring up at the ceiling of his bedroom for the umpteenth time, John once again couldn’t sleep. He hadn't been able to since the funeral. It had been two weeks since he had attended Lisa’s funeral, five weeks since Cliff had finally brought Sam home. Sam had managed to make a full recovery and had been officially discharged from the hospital after three weeks.

After Sam was discharged however John dare not face Cliff having left the hospital, trying to busy himself in Bridges's affairs just remotely anything to avoid the older man only for all that to be thrown out the window when a grieving Cliff asked if he would be able to attend the funeral. 

He couldn’t understand why the Captain asked him to come. Whatever promises he made to the Captain to save Lisa back then were now nothing but false hopes and pretenses. And even if a part of him knew that the Captain was a logical man and would know when things have gone dire, this was his wife. Of course the Captain would dare to hope even if the chances were bleak and it didn't help that he put all those sweet little lies of hope into the Captain's head. Even he should know better when he pleaded to Bridget to do everything she could to save Lisa only for the woman to concede to him that they were but there was nothing that they could do. It was just a waiting game despite all the treatments, known and experimental to try to revive Lisa but in the end she succumbed to her injuries.

John nearly didn’t go to the funeral, too ashamed of failing his Captain in not being able to save his wife. But he couldn’t deny the Captain’s request and it would be utterly disrespectful if he rejected it.

He remembered when he saw the older man, he had braced for the moment when Cliff would let loose his rage on him. After all he deserved it.

Yet, there was no rage. No anger. Instead, he had been pulled into a firm hug and a whisper of thanks from Cliff’s lips.

He couldn’t understand. Why would his former Captain still be able to thank him for coming to his wife’s funeral after everything? He felt that he didn’t deserve it. No. He just knew he didn’t deserve it.

As soon as the funeral was over, he left unable to face Cliff in the eye and since then didn’t dare to go visit the man and his son. It was rude of him, he knew that, but the guilt eating up inside him told him it was for the best.

He did have Cliff’s number after exchanging numbers with him back in the hospital but he dare not message the man let alone call him. Even after seeing the number of messages and missed calls from Cliff on the brightly lit screen of his phone.

He was nothing but trouble for the older man. Even back in the days when they would go on missions in Iraq, his recklessness would often got him and the squad in a pickle. It was utterly confusing as to why the Captain hadn’t booted him out of the team.

Putting his phone on silent, the man then turns and switches off the lamp by his bed and curls in under the covers, attempting once more to try to sleep. 

* * *

Dreams rarely came to John nowadays. As a child, he would be stricken with nightmares but that slowly disappeared as he grew up, although the nightmares would come back briefly after he returned from the war.

But after treatment for his PTSD before he joined Bridges, the nightmares had stopped or rarely came to him. Yet this wasn’t like any nightmare he had ever been.

John was confused to wake up on a beach with black sand and dark grey waters as far as the eye could see. Where was he? Why was he at a beach? That’s when he noticed the red string that slowly emerged from the waters and reached towards him.

The string slowly floated closer and then wrapped itself around his finger, tying itself around his little finger. He tried to untie it but found he couldn’t, even when he desperately tried to pull it off the string remain attached. And then that’s when he saw him.

When he looked up, he saw his former Captain, Cliff, in the waters waist deep with the same red string tied around the older man’s own finger.

“What the hell?” John murmurs and he swore he saw the Captain say the same thing looking utterly confused like him.

A shock then reverberated through him from the string, the strand vibrating with something akin to a heartbeat and he felt emotions that just didn’t seem to be his own. It then hit him.

He recalled a myth that his grandmother would tell him when he was a young boy. The story of soulmates and how the Universe would ensure that everyone on this planet would have a soulmate.

_“As for those whom lost their soulmates, the Universe will provide another and form another connection between the widowed soulmate and another soul. Thus, no human will suffer and perish for they are not meant to be alone.”_

_“How will I know who my soulmate is, Nana?”_

_“You’ll know when you wake up in a dream and a red strand will appear and wrap itself around your finger. You will feel your soulmate’s heartbeat and all their emotions. That’s how you will know according to the legend.”_

John’s eyes widened just as Cliff’s did in the distance. He was soulmates now with the Captain? This… This had to be a joke. He didn’t deserve the man, not as a soldier and definitely not as a soulmate.

While John had no qualms with his sexuality, he didn’t know if the Captain felt the same way. Not to mention, he felt that he wasn’t fit to be the Captain’s soulmate after everything he did.

But then he saw Cliff’s look of confusion and shock melt away and a smile slowly grew on his lips. He saw the Captain mouth to him, _Meet me later._

And then John woke up.

John woke up with a gasp, trying to deduce where he was when he realized he was back in his bed in his bedroom. Was that just a dream? But by god, it felt so real and the Captain seemed to be there and be able to communicate with him.

He suddenly felt his phone vibrate and he just knew it was the Captain.

Yet for some reason, he decided to reach over and grab his phone instead of ignoring it like before, sliding the message open and reading what Cliff sent to him.

**I do apologize for texting you this John but… we need to talk. About a ‘dream’ as soon as you’re available.**

John dropped his phone. So it was real. He was now soulmates with the Captain.

Yet, he felt terrible guilt for it. Not two weeks since Lisa died and the Universe had decided he would become soulmates with his Captain whom he had no idea how he would process with the idea of being soulmates with a bisexual man.

Still, he quickly grabbed his phone and texted Cliff back.

**Yes, I can meet soon. Where and when?** Not even ten seconds in and he got a response already.

**Tomorrow at 9 AM. My place.** John then receives the address of Cliff’s home in another second text message and he agrees to it.

Oh he just hoped that everything would go smoothly and maybe reason with the Captain that this was all just a mistake and he didn’t need to be soulmates with him. That there were other potentially better people than he himself will ever be.

Cliff didn’t deserve him and he felt he didn’t deserve the man whom he respected and come to love dearly.


End file.
